Telecommunications equipment manufacturers are now offering a number of fixed-mobile convergence solutions for convergence of services and networks from fixed and mobile networks and these solutions are beginning to be rolled out commercially by telecommunication carriers.
However, those equipment manufacturer solutions are not always taken up by the standardization organizations (such as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in the field of mobile networks or the ETSI (TISPAN) in the field of fixed networks), and therefore remain proprietary solutions, i.e. solutions that are limited to enriched multimedia services specific to the terminals supplied by the equipment manufacturer and that do not allow for the use of simple services such as an instant messaging session with sharing of contents between a number of users if the environment is not entirely compatible with the solution of the equipment manufacturer.
Moreover, the applicable mobile communication standards (see in particular the 3GPP document TS 23.228 V6.4.1 (2004-01), Third Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS); Stage 2 (Release 6)>>) propose fixed-mobile convergence with user mobility support based on an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture that is specific to the mobile network and has been taken up and adapted by the ETSI (TISPAN) to take account of specific features of fixed networks. However, the fixed-mobile convergence approach envisaged in the current (3GPP) mobile communication standards consider only the situation where a user moves from an outdoor environment to an indoor environment using the same terminal.
Current solutions, whether proprietary or based on standards, at best enable a user having a multimedia session in progress on their mobile terminal when entering an indoor environment equipped with a fixed local area network to continue that multimedia session on the fixed local area network of the indoor environment, instead of the mobile network on which it was initiated, and using the same terminal. Fixed-mobile convergence is effected only at the information transport network level, the user's session using the fixed network instead of the mobile communications network as soon as the user is connected to the indoor local area network.
Consequently, to offer users switching solutions that are optimized in particular in terms of cost, ergonomics, resources, etc., none of the solutions currently proposed takes account of indoor devices available in an indoor local area network. Users approaching an indoor local area network may nevertheless prefer to transfer their multimedia sessions in progress to a device of the indoor local area network more suitable for those sessions.